How to Draw Manga Animals: A Beginner's Guide to Creating Characters

How to Draw Manga Animals: A Beginner's Guide to Creating Characters

How to Draw Manga Animals takes readers through step-by-step drawing instructions to successfully create their own super-cute manga animal characters as well as the worlds they live in. This book looks at elements in creating a manga-style animal character with appeal, exploring archetypes and other familiar types of characters. The popularity of manga among young people who love to draw continues to grow. In her third manga book, J.C. Amberlyn focuses on her favorite subject matter, animals, with a fun and lively how-to-draw book aimed at beginners. How to Draw Manga Animals takes readers through all the step-by-step drawing instructions they need to learn how to successfully create their own super-cute manga animal characters as well as the worlds they live in. In How to Draw Manga Animals J.C. Amberlyn takes readers through all the drawing techniques they'll need to create a cast of manga-style animal characters. What makes a good character design? This book looks at elements in creating a manga-style animal character with appeal, exploring archetypes and other familiar types of characters as well as how to add unexpected or unique elements that give characters a memorable twist. In addition, readers will learn to draw cute chibi critters and dangerous-looking monsters and everything in between for comics, games, or simply their own personal enjoyment. This book includes chapters on some common or notable real and mythological Japanese animals to provide readers a foundation of knowledge to start their own animal character designs. J. C. Amberlyn is an artist, book author, photographer, animator, and naturalist. She is the author of Drawing Wildlife , Drawing Manga Animals , Chibis, and Other Adorable Creatures , The Artist's Guide to Drawing Animals: How to Draw Cats, Dogs, and Other Favorite Pets; and How to Draw Manga Characters: A Beginner’s Guide . J. C. loves art, animation, animals, and adventure in the great outdoors. She seeks to create visual and written works of art that strike a chord with her audience, whether they celebrate the life that shares the planet with us or the rich inner workings of the human mind and experience. With her books, she shares techniques for creating epic stories, engaging characters, and appealing art for readers of all skill levels. Her work has received recognition and a number of awards and has been published in various media. She lives in Arizona. CHAPTER ONE: STORIES AND CHARACTERS Concepts for Creating Manga-Style Characters or Creatures What comes first in character design, the character or the story? This is really a “chicken or the egg” question, without a clear answer, because it can be either. Sometimes inspiration strikes with a character concept and you build your story on that idea, and sometimes it’s the story that comes to you first and you then populate that story with appropriate characters. Let’s take a look at the two ways to begin your creative process.   Who’s your character? What’s its story? Sometimes your initial inspiration to create comes from a character idea. What if there was a character who thinks and acts like this and struggles with that? Whatever “this” and “that” are, the character should spark enough conflict and interest to make you and your potential audience want them to develop further and see how they react and grow. Or perhaps you have a passion for some creature that lives in your imagination and you want to develop them more, see who and what they are, and what challenges they might face. And, sometimes, you just like drawing something! Once you have an idea of who this interesting character is, you can develop a story for them. This intricate, detailed kirin would be perfect for a sweeping fantasy story filled with more realistic dangers and creatures.   This more cartoonish kirin would fit a cheerful, bright video game or comic full of cute critters, and an inviting colorful world.   Conversely, sometimes the story comes first. Perhaps you visualize a world that has something different and interesting to you, some challenge or property to it that you’d like to explore further. Maybe there’s a problem you see in real life and you’d like to throw some characters into that mix and see how they might react, or even solve, that problem. Once you create your scenarios, you need to invent characters to live in that world and make it come alive.   Puphons are creatures I simply enjoy drawing. I got the idea of taking the traditional gryphon (half eagle and half lion) but replacing the eagle with a puffin, the funny little seabird with the colorful bill! This led to a humorous creature that is a lot of fun to draw. Something like this could lead to ideas for a story: What are these creatures? How are they like traditional gryphons and how are they unlike them? Do they live near the ocean? How do they survive? Do others see them as silly and fun as I do? How do they react to that?   Regardless of how the in